Network Scanner

[AV1611]

I need to find a free program that is very well written that I can use to evaluate the security on my Network. Also I need a program that I can use to find problems on my network ranging from Bad cable to bad cards and even bad ports on my Switch.

What Can I use also to hack my own network to test security?

Thanks, AV

 

[Robnhood]

Nessus and/or nmap could help you audit the security on your network.

Craig

http://www.SecurelySpeaking.com

 

[paulha]

symantec.com do a free web based security scan, will give you a good idea of where you are at

link at bottom left hand corner of their website

http://www.symantec.com/index.htm

 

[lgarner]

Ethereal is a basic sniffer-like program.

 

[ebroo]

Finding bad cables and cards with a tester would be an expensive Fluke device - unless you mean software that will alert me if a log sees an indicative sign of hardware failure -

For watching security - I would agree with the others that Nessus - which is a frontend for nmap - you can scan your network for known vulnerabilites with this
Squil - Frontend for Snort - This will keep an active eye on packets flowing to and through your network - run one sensor outside, and one inside to get the best picture.

Ntop - is also a nice tool to show you the meat of whats going on in your network -

Swatch - this will monitor log files and do stuff when it matches a pattern -

 

[bfralia]

You might want to look into the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer, it's free and tells you a lot about a computer.

Network hardware analysis isn't going to be cheap.